Favorite Fall Soup

This is one of our favorite fall soups and so comforting when the chilly winds blow in. Delicious with a fresh loaf of crusty bread and a side salad. Yum!

This is such a good soup, in fact...I know of a little girl who had some recently and she actually filled her water bottle up with the leftovers so she could drink it while she played. :) Now if that is not a compliment I don't know what is! :)

I get my coconut oil here and it is great!  If you are a first time customer there and buy through this link you will also receive a free coconut book of benefits and recipes.

If you try it, I hope you enjoy it!

Linda’s Split Pea Soup

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 6 cups water or broth
• 1-1/2 cups dry split peas (if they are old, soak overnight)
• 2 carrots, diced
• inner part of celery and leaves of 2 celery heads, minced
• optional: 1 leftover baked potato, diced (we like just as well without it! J)
• optional spices: 1/8 – 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp sage, 1 T parsley, 1-2 tsp liquid smoke flavor, 1-3 tsp tamari or 1 tsp smoked sea salt

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat (4 on my stove top). Sauté the onion in the oil until it becomes soft. Add the garlic, being careful not to burn the garlic, stir constantly. Add cayenne, thyme, sage and parsley. Next add the water and split peas. Stir it up and bring it to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to medium low. Allow it to simmer on the back of the stove for about 20 minutes. Then add the carrots and celery and cook 20 - 30 more minutes. Add the potato and heat through. The peas should break up and thicken the soup. Spice it up as you like. It was really a sweet soup and I had to add salt. As a variation you could use liquid smoke and tamari. Yum! We all like very well!

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 3 (yes, again)

Matthew 21:22

²²And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."

Well, we survived the 2 days of "Green Smoothie only" and just finished our 3rd day.

I am trusting God with this and asking for His help. So far I am doing well and not having cravings at all. I continue to feel good and am comfortable even though the house is hot. I did turn on the fans today but I still feel my body temperature seems to have lowered and I am tolerant of more heat than usual.

Jeff is struggling somewhat. Physically and emotionally. He had a migraine w/vomitting over the first night. He still has some brain fog type stuff and blurred vision. He says, "this diet hurts my feelings." He has craved corn chips and also chocolate.

For breakfast today we still had a green smoothie. For lunch we had Healing Quinoa Soup. I varied it a bit by using 6 cups of cabbage and 5 cloves of garlic. We really enjoyed it. For dinner we had stir fry veggies (broccoli, red russian kale, green onions, garlic, carrots) over quinoa.

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 1 (yes, again)

June 7th marked the end of our last Elimination Diet. It was day 72. Wow. What we discovered is as we added more and more to the diet we began to eat more and more of the higher allergenic items and less and less of the healthful foods. I realized I was probably allergic to wheat and soy but I ate them anyways...because I wanted them. I began to crave junk foods again. :( I stopped losing weight and began to gain some of what I had lost. I realized the wheat and soy were causing me to retain water and to bloat and become more irritable. My body temperature rose too which contributed to more irritability. Earlier in the diet when we were eating much more basically and without the higher allergenic foods my body temperature had actually dropped and I was cold...so when my temperature went back up I noticed.

Today is day one of starting over. Jeff wanted to do it this time and Jeremiah wanted to do it again too...my brother's family also is joining us this time. The plan is to do 3 days of Green Smoothies to begin the cleanse. If we only do 2 I have already decided to be ok with that. I am, in fact, even ok with only one day. I just am looking forward to eating healthier again and leaving some of the things that cause problems out.

Today we drank lots of water and had green smoothies at 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30. It's almost 10pm and I am starting to get hungry. I am heading to bed as soon as I post this so the cleanse can "work" ... and so the breakfast smoothie arrives sooner. :)

I have already noticed my body temperature is falling again. It was 75 in the house today and I was not perspiring! Usually I would be very uncomfortable anything over 70. 65 is ideal for me. Today I am comfortable with 75!

I have noticed some slight head ache but only for a couple minutes or so. I have felt pretty well. I did find myself falling asleep during my lunch break though.

So...we'll see what tomorrow brings. :) I know that with the Lord's help we can do this and I am trusting Him for that help.

Here's a link to the smoothie recipes we are using. If you haven't seen it yet, you should go watch this fun video on how to make a green smoothie. :)

Tropical Traditions Features a Sola Gratia Recipe

Imagine my excitement when I logged in to facebook and saw a familiar picture of a familiar meal we recently ate...and it was on Tropical Traditions blog! I was like...wait, that's my pic...oh yeah...we submitted the pic and recipe! How cool is that?? There it is on their blog on facebook! :)

This is my first published recipe! AND a published picture taken by my son, Jeremiah! Rejoice with us in how God has provided!! (You can earn free jars of coconut oil by submitting recipes...if they post them to their blog.) I am so grateful!

Thank you, Tropical Traditions!

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 30

Judah's Mario cookie creation

These cookies are from Ali's recipe over at Whole Life Nutrition...they are so amazing!! They are totally sugar free, made from almond flour and coconut ground into flour...sweetened with stevia. I used 1 cup of almond flour and 1 cup of coconut. I grind my own almond flour in the food processor...I ground up 1 cup of almonds then measured a cup and saved the extra. I put the ground almonds back in the processor with the coconut and let it run til it was all nicely powdered. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly.

Delicious! You do need to keep them in the freezer to keep them crisp and flaky...if you leave them out they soften. They are tasty that way too...but we eat them straight from the freezer. So good with or without Ali's yummy frosting...which is amazing and so pretty as a glaze.
I did get interrupted while I was making these and stored some frosting in the fridge. It turned a different, thicker texture and did not return to a glaze state even at room temp. But it was still good...just not as pretty as the glaze...more of a matte finish than a glossy finish. (Can you tell I am a paper crafter...lol!) Another thing to note, as I was working with the dough I noticed 10 minutes was great for baking when the dough was straight from the fridge but as I re rolled the leftover pieces and the dough became more room temp it only needed about 8 minutes. The taste and texture of these cookies is amazing. I usually feel the need to tweak a recipe. Not this one, Ali got it right on! Try these, you will be delighted! So yummy and nourishing too!

The picture above with the toothpicks added is Judah's creation.:) It's Mario. :) He had a blast making and eating these! :)

Easter morning I made a delicious coffee cake from almond flour...I may share the recipe some day, when I have it perfected. :)

Family Easter gathering was at my brother Matthew's house. My assignment was to bring a vegetarian main dish and a healthy dessert. Someone else was doing mashed potatoes but we can't have milk or butter or cream cheese etc that was in them so I also took roasted potatoes in the crock pot. We took the sunflower seed burger's from Ali's book...yum! For the dessert we took the cookies above as well as the cookies I made the other day, and a raw apple pie (recipe below) that is really tasty. My sister in law Mariya loved the cookies and my niece Savannah (7) loved the apple pie. :) There was also a delicious green salad there and a to-die-for Russian Carrot Salad that I put on top of my salad in place of dressing...yum! Being together with the whole family was the highlight and we enjoyed all the babies, the Easter egg hunt and the good stories being shared! Mariya's parents came as we were leaving so we enjoyed visiting with them a bit too. Mariya is from Ukraine and her mom has all kinds of interesting remedy recipes...equal parts lemon and garlic pureed and stored five days in fridge and then take 1 tsp a day at night helps with cholesterol and blood pressure. I will have to try it! :)

Last night we went to hear the Jostie's and skipped dinner...I snacked on some almonds and fruit roll. When we got home I made some teff cereal. Then I put the small pot in the fridge. This morning the cereal was hard so I dumped it out onto a plate. It was round, the form of the pot. I sliced it in 1/4 inch thin rounds and fried it in a skillet in some coconut oil. We put a bit of maple syrup on it and it was such a good breakfast, really enjoyed it! I will share that recipe soon...forgot to get a picture of it this morning.

Raw Apple Pie
Here's my recipe for the Raw Apple Pie...I have shared this post at Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, check out all the great recipes everyone is sharing.

Favorite Raw Apple Pie

1 3/4 cups sunflower seeds
1 cup medjool dates, no pits
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 T coconut oil

Process the sunflower seeds until ground well. Remove 1/3 cup of the ground seeds and sprinkle around the bottom of a large deep dish pie plate. Add the dates, sea salt and coconut oil to the remaining ground seeds and process well. Shape into a ball and press into the pie plate. Using a hand held pizza dough roller, roll the dough flat, then use your hands to press the dough up the sides of the plate. Or you can roll the dough out between pieces of plastic wrap and then transfer to pie plate.

For the filling you will need:

1/3 cup medjool dates, no pits
2 small pears or 1 extra large pear
6 organic fuji apples, processed very thin slices
1 cup organic raisins
2 T ground cinnamon
1 T lemon juice or juice of small lemon
1 T coconut cream concentrate

Place the apples into a large bowl. Stir the cinnamon, raisins and lemon juice into the apple slices. Blend the dates and pears well. Add the pureed pears/dates to the apples and stir well to incorporate.

Store the bowl of apple slices in the fridge until ready to serve. Store the pie crust in the fridge as well. When ready to serve, fill the crust with the apple slices and cut into 12 slices. Serve with a topping of toasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and coconut flakes if desired. Enjoy!

So...we have made it to day 30. :) We are doing well. Those of you who are praying for us, thank you! Please continue. God is so good and faithful!

Tonight for dinner we had millet and tomato sauce and garlicky green beans. I loved the beans...so good. :) Jeff and Judah had brown rice pasta, which I don't think we are allowed as it's made from brown rice flours.

We were supposed to add Salmon in on Sunday but didn't until Monday and even then we couldn't do it 3x's a day. Can't afford it and can't stomach it...I hardly like it at all...I ate a 1/2 portion and said skip it. Oh well, we never ate it very often anyways, we are likely not allergic to it and if we are, we eat it so rarely it probably doesn't matter. Or does it? Maybe I am getting lenient...maybe we will just add it in later.

We are thinking of skipping adding tofu and tempeh...we don't care for either really and I am still not sure what to think of soy products. How do you feel about the soy debate?

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 25

Lemon Truffle
Bon Bons

Well, that's what I am calling them anyways. :)
They are officially called Lemon Coconut Energy Bites and I found them on the Mighty Vegan Blog. I did adapt the recipe somewhat. I used coconut cream concentrate instead of coconut butter and I omitted the maca. I also made 22 instead of 10. They turned out really tasty...I am enjoying them.

Jeremiah prefers these snicker doodle like cookies that I am still in the recipe development stage on. I have made them twice so far...the first time they were too dry...yet very tasty.



























The second time I made them they were too moist. I am also a bit disturbed by how discolored they become while I am working with the dough. I think it is oxidation of the apple sauce so I may try adding some lemon juice next batch. When I broke one in half the next day the discoloration was a bit disturbing as well...little greenish blue flecks inside. Weird...but still tasty. :)



























Jeremiah and I are still doing well. It has been fun to add things back in and have more variety. We have developed some new recipes and are looking forward to making some cookies for Easter. I thought we would do that today but the day got away from us so we'll do it tomorrow.

Today we were to add in pineapple, banana and papaya but for some reason we forgot and we didn't do it. I guess we will eat them starting tomorrow.

Here's what was for dinner tonight: Roasted Broccoli and Purple Cauliflower, Salad, Sunflower Seed Burgers and Fried Potatoes. It was good.
















Delicious Homemade Ketchup :)


Purple Cauliflower before it was roasted...very pretty!

















After roasting...yum. Next time no lemon though. Need to remember that. We liked it better roasted without lemon like we did last time before we were allowed lemon.

I won 3rd place in the Biggest Loser Contest with Family and Friends!!

When I started the Biggest Loser competition with my family and friends I really had no intention of winning. I knew I wouldn't get a lot of time for exercise and I knew I wasn't very competitive. I also knew I wanted to support my brother, Matthew, who started it and I knew it would help me as far as accountability went.

I would have to pay if I gained weight during the week between weighing in. It was $10 to start with and so even that small investment made me stick to it and follow through. For 7 weeks we did this. (The rules we used are at the end of this post.)

I was truly shocked when I found out I won a place! There were 10 people in total and I was in 5th place the week before. I was pretty pleased with taking a place...it was fun to get the call from my brother informing me. :) AND Very fun that my investment more than doubled!! :) AND I lost 22 pounds! I only need to do that 8.5 more times to reach my goal of 150. It may take awhile. But I'm in. :) I will keep plugging away at this.

My highest weight ever was 408. I am at 338 now.

I know that this can be done...but it will be only by His grace! Linda

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

PS If you want to start your own competition, here are the rules we used:

We will start Sunday, February 27th. At some point during the afternoon or evening, everyone should come to Mariya's parents house for weigh-in. This way we are all using the same scale. Mariya will be the official weight keeper and log all our weights on http://www.corporatefitnessleague.com/ web site so we can see who is winning. I was thinking about trusting everyone to weigh themselves, but then if we got one dishonest person, they could take all our money. :-) What do you guys think? If everyone would rather go with weighing themselves, I'm up for that, too.

Here are the rules:

1. HAVE FUN! Eat healthy, and exercise.

2. The first weigh in will be February 27th at Mariya's parents house. If you can't make it that day, please arrange with Mariya for another time.

3. The final weigh in will be April 17th, during the afternoon or evening at Mariya's parents house.

4. Unofficial weigh ins will be every Sunday at your own house. E-mail Mariya your weight and she will enter it in thehttp://www.corporatefitnessleague.com/ web site so we can see who is winning. (They didn't really do this link because people didn't want everyone to know what they weighed..instead Mariya figured the percentage each person lost and posted it to us each week in a group on facebook.)

5. There is a $10 registration fee which must be paid during your first weigh in. All fees will go towards winners prizes. We may try to open a Chase bank account to earn a $100 bonus to go towards the prize as well.

6. (You can join at any time during the first two weeks, but the longer you wait the harder it will be to win.)

7. There will be a penalty fee of $1 if your weight stays the same and $1 for each pound your weight goes up during one week.

8. There will be a penalty fee of $1 if you fail to weigh in and e-mail to Mariya by each Monday.

9. Each contestant must share two healthy recipes during the contest via the Facebook group, for the benefit of others. One recipe should be submitted in March, and one in April. Failure to do so will result in a $5 penalty per missing recipe.

10. The winners will be the people who lose the largest percentage of body weight. (start at 200 pounds and lose 10 pounds you have lost 5%). [ Weight Loss / Start Weight = Percentage Loss). The first and final weigh ins will be the only official weights and will be done on a digital scale at Mariya's parents house.

11. 1st place gets 50% of the fees collected. 2nd place gets 30%. 3rd place gets 20%.

12. No cheating allowed!!!!